Of Love And Lunacy
by KatieFrank
Summary: A group of friends find themselves in their last year at Hogwarts. This is how they cope with love, lunacy and the Marauders. Marauder Era SBOC, LilyJames etc DISCONTINUED due to author disinterest.
1. Chapter 1

A short brown-haired girl rushed through the station dragging a slightly battered case behind her. Several people shot her strange looks as she rushed past them and one older couple started to mutter between them about the cruelty of keeping an owl trapped up in a cage. The girl just gritted her teeth and ignored them, mind far more focused on the joys that lay ahead of her. Finally she came to a halt, staring determinedly at the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Those few people who had been paying close attention to her rushed journey through the station stared at her more closely, wondering what this strange teenager was doing. But even their attention wavered and fell back to their previous conversations when she made no sign of moving. Once she was sure no one was playing too close attention to her, the girl smiled and rolled her eyes, walking briskly towards the wall and then straight through it.

The platform on the other side was almost empty; the big red steam train that would carry her to the school she longed to be back at sat there happily puffing out steam. Truth be told there hadn't been any desperate need for the girl to rush through King's Cross station in the way she had, most of the students hadn't even arrived yet, but she had people to meet and a tradition to keep up. One she wasn't in any mood to break. It was a tradition formed in her very first year and continued between her and her friends ever year since. It didn't take her long to spot two of that same group of friends, a petite black-haired girl and a tall, stunning blonde who seemed to emanate her own glow. A wide and warm smiled fixed on her face the girl made her way forwards, wavy brown hair bouncing gently in time with her steps.

"Hey guys." She grinned, waving brightly at them.

The two girls turned, wide smiles spreading across their faces when they saw her. The taller of the two rushed forwards and wrapped her in a tight hug.

"Ouch. Crystal sweetheart, can you stop trying to kill me before we've even got on the train? I need to breathe!"

Her friend's voice was muffled by her arms but Crystal managed to hear it and took a step back, shining blonde hair seeming to glow in the sunlight.

"Anna, I missed you! I haven't seen you all summer!"

Anna sighed and nodded, running a hand through her messy brown waves. When she spoke her voice had a tired edge to it, as if she would rather not be reminded of the fact she hadn't seen her friends all summer.

"I know, I know, but my father wanted to do something with my step mother and we ended up camping in the Lake District for two weeks. And then there was the half of the summer holidays I had to spend with my real mother. I hardly had time to unpack my trunk, never mind organise a way of coming over to see you. I did send owls though, did you not get them?"

"Oh, I got the owls." She said brightly. "But I still missed you!"

Anna rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Samara, the pretty black-haired girl beside her, in an attempt to ignore her best friend.

"And how was your summer, Samara?"

Samara just shrugged. "Not too bad actually. I went to Egypt with my parents for a few weeks, my mum wanted to explore her heritage." She smiled. "It was pretty interesting. Not my mother's heritage of course, but we got to see a sphinx."

"I was just commenting that she looked even more tanned than usual." Crystal smiled, gesturing towards Samara's face. "Don't you think?"

Anna didn't have anything to say to that, mostly down to the fact it was near impossible to tell when Samara was tanned or not because her skin was golden anyway due to Egyptian heritage. She was just opening her mouth to say so when another member of their little group came skidding to a halt beside Crystal.

"'Sup guys?" She laughed, quickly sweeping her green eyes over them. "God Crystal, have those grown even more? And you're looking tanned, Books, been on holiday?"

All three girls turned and grinned broadly at her, Georgina, or George, was the only person who could get away with calling Samara 'Books', she was also the only person who tried. Anna and Samara glanced between each other, quickly raising hands to stifle their giggles as Crystal glanced down at her chest with a critical expression on her face.

"Possibly." She mused.

"Well you've already got the boys drooling all over you so I dread to think what this is going to do to them. We'll be casting full body binds on them all just so we can get between classes without being mauled." George laughed, gesticulating over dramatically.

"George, you are mad, amazing but mad." Anna grinned, her eyes sparkling. "Anyway, I don't think you have much room to talk, yours are getting as bad as hers."

Georgina shrugged. "Not really." She smirked. "But it doesn't matter anyway; Crystal will always be the boy magnet."

She ran a hand through her sandy brown hair. It had been cut a fair bit shorter since any of them had last seen it but the spiky boyish cut suited her and her face and figure were still feminine enough to stop her being mistaken for a boy, as Samara sometimes was. She crouched down and poked her fingers through the bars that **(added the that)** of the cage sat on top of Samara's case.

"So how have you all been?" She asked casually. "And you, Gingersnap have you been good? Are you looking forwards to seeing Sid again hmm?"

George was, despite her tough and tomboyish outward appearances, a complete softy when it came to cats or any animals in fact. It shocked most people when they first met her, it had shocked their little group the first day they'd met, no one suspected a punk-rocker like her to be cooing and practically drooling all over a tiny ginger kitten.

There was a loud mewling from the basket on top of George's trunk and Anna instinctively bent down and scratched George's tortoiseshell cat Sid under the chin. Sid gave a quiet 'meow'. happy he was finally getting the attention he craved.

"I've been alright," Anna muttered, her voice nearly drowned out by Sid's happy purring.

"I heard you went camping in the Lake District, have much fun?" George laughed. "I went with my parents last year."

Anna rolled her eyes, her expression giving away the fact that she did not particularly wishing to re-live this past summer. "It was cold. And wet." She grumbled. "But the ice creams were great. Rum and raisin is my new favourite."

"I'm not late am I? And what's all this about rum and raisin ice cream?"

George and Anna whirled around as a new voice cut across their conversation. Standing behind them was a girl with deep red hair and green eyes- Lily Evans, the fifth member of their little group. George grinned and flung her arms around the red-head's neck with Crystal a split second behind, squealing with joy and engulfing her two friends in a huge hug. Samara and Anna hung back a little until Lily was released, unwilling to be trapped in the bone-crushing group hug.

"Lily! How are you?"

"Fantastic. I've got some great news." She beamed, rifling through her coat pockets. "Look!"

"Oh my god Head Girl!" Crystal squealed, looking at the shiny badge.

"Mhm." Lily grinned, nodding. "I just hope I can do it right."

"You'll be fine, I'm sure we'll get away with just as much as we do now. Come on, now we're all here can we get on the train? I have bags to put away," George grumbled.

"Hold your hippogriffs, Georgina." Crystal laughed, earning her a punch on the arm. Excluding the professors no one called George Georgina any more, not unless they wanted a smack on the arm. "Alright, alright, we'll get on the train."

There was a slight ripple of laughter and the, talking and giggling between themselves the group headed towards the train. The conductor watched them ruefully from the platform, he'd watched this group form and stay strong over the last six years and a stronger group of friends was hard to find. They had been there on his first day of the job, starting their first year at Hogwarts and he knew them all by name and personality now, Crystal the flirt, Samara the quiet bookworm, George the troublemaker, Lily the level-headed decision maker and Anna. Anna was hard to describe, her personality a mix of all the others. Crystal, the leader of the group waved genially at him as she passed. He sighed; it would be strange not seeing them next year.

Now they had finally boarded the train, they wandered down the corridors looking for somewhere to sit, they passed several compartments on their way, most of them already full. While they had waited for each other and talked amongst themselves people had been boarding the train, taking most of the best seats. When we finally did come across an empty compartment there was a crash and four boys shoved past them to claim the free seats.

"Care to join us ladies?" One of them grinned.

Lily glared at him. "Potter, you are the most insufferable person I have ever met!" She snapped storming off.

"Take that as a no, we won't be joining you." George grinned, following her.

"And you'll have to try harder to get into her good books James." Crystal giggled, leaning against the doorframe. "See you around Sirius, Remus."

Anna watched Crystal tip her head to two of the other boys in the room then whirl away. Sighing and giving them a half smile, she followed after her quickly with Samara. That had been the Marauders, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, four of the biggest troublemakers in the school. They were all Gryffindors and James and Sirius were two of the biggest heartthrobs the school had. James was infatuated with Lily despite the small setback he had of her hating his guts, and Sirius was a known heartbreaker. Remus was the genius of the bunch, well he got the best grades anyway, and Peter just seemed to follow them along and agree with everything they said. They were a nuisance most of the time, but pretty clever and pretty nice guys. Sometimes.

At the head of the group Anna saw Crystal duck into an open compartment with a giddy squeal. She winced slightly at the noise and turned to look at Samara, cocking an eyebrow as she did so.

"Either she's found Hel or there are some guys in there she hasn't had her wicked way with yet." Anna chuckled, gesturing towards the open compartment.

Samara smiled softly, rolling her eyes. "I hope, for all our sakes that it's the former."

"So do I Samara, so do I. The question is, do we dare go and find out which one it is?"

After a few moments of what seemed to be careful deliberation Samara nodded slowly. Grinning to themselves the two girls tentatively followed their friends into the compartment. Anna couldn't help but release a sigh of relief when she saw a raven-haired Ravenclaw sat listening to Lily's complaints about James Potter.

"Oh Hel, I'm so glad we found you. I nearly ended up in a compartment with Potter!" She grumbled.

"Yeah, she's right; it _is_ a good thing we found you. There would have been bloodshed otherwise." Anna laughed from the doorway. "Will we all fit in here?"

Helena looked up at the door and smiled, confusion flickering across her face.

"Hey Anna, hey Samara. Of course we'll all fit in here; we've managed it every other year what makes you think this one will be any different?" She asked.

"Well I think Crystal's chest needs a compartment to itself. I swear she's been doing engorgement charms while we haven't been looking," She teased.

Crystal gasped and pulled out her wand, pointing it directly at Anna's head.

"You have the audacity to question my respectability? Why, I should curse you right here and now!" She snapped, her glittering blue eyes belying the joke.

Anna played her part well, holding her hands up in mock surrender, although the grin on her face spoiled the effect somewhat.

"No, don't curse me O great Crystal. I apologise for ever doubting your… authenticity." She smirked.

Crystal chuckled as well, pocketing her wand again. With a slight nod to her friends Anna threw her trunk up into the overhead compartment alongside George's and lifted Scratch, her tawny owl's, cage placing him next to Crystal's snowy owl, Feather. Once her bags were all sorted out she ducked into the compartment, throwing herself right in Crystal's lap.

"Ouch, get off me!" She yelled, trying to push her friend off.

Anna just smiled at her innocently. "Why Crystal, is that a wand in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

With an indignant snort Crystal gave Anna a hefty shove that sent her sprawling onto the floor. By now the whole compartment was in fits of laughter, even Samara the most serious of us all was bent over double laughing.

"Oh no. Not you lot again. What have you done this time?"

From her less than dignified position on the floor Anna looked up to see Helena's boyfriend Max standing in the doorway. He grinned at the group and quickly grabbed the seat beside Helena before anyone else tried to claim it, not that they would. Hel and Max had been an item since the third year and everyone was convinced they were going to get married and have lots of amazing children. He had grown his hair out more since the girls had seen him last and it now hung over one of his eyes, although whether he'd done it naturally or by magic once he was out of the house was anyone's guess. Anna slowly got to her feet and sat down next to Crystal again, watching as everyone took their seats. Lily however did not take a seat, hovering by the door with her bags. She glanced at us all sadly, her eyes constantly flickering between us and the corridor ahead of her.

"Well I better get going; I have to sit up front with the prefects." She sighed. "I'll see you all on my rounds no doubt."

She cast George a disapproving look which George for her part returned with her most innocent smile. Lily sighed and turned to head down the corridor, looking up she paused and gave a half-wave. George, having the seat nearest the door leant out and peered down the corridor, only to return to her usual position a second later, a disgusted expression on her face. Moments later the rest of the cabin realised why as a hook-nosed, greasy haired teenager appeared in the doorway in front of Lily.

"Hello Lily."

"Severus, how have you been? I didn't see you all summer." Lily smiled.

"I know. I was away with my parents." He glanced into the compartment then down the corridor a little further, his face paling slightly more. He smiled sadly at Lily them muttered a quick farewell. "I have to go. I… er… I have stuff to do."

Lily's face fell a little. "Oh, alright. I'll see you in Potions then."

He nodded curtly and slimed off down the corridor. George fixed his retreating shape with her most burning scowl, her lips drawn tight as she battled not to yell an insult after him. By the looks on their faces the rest of them felt the same way, only Samara's chocolate eyes didn't burn with hatred. They glanced at each other nervously, all of them wanting to know the same thing – how could Lily and Samara stand that grease ball? The uncomfortable silence that fell over the compartment was broken at last by Helena.

"I can't believe it's our last year already."

"I know. We have NEWTs to look forward to, the joy!" George grumbled- she wasn't exactly in love with education. "Then again at least I only have four. I can't believe you and Samara took six."

Crystal grinned sheepishly, for once unsure of what to say. "Well, can't blame us for aiming high. Still, I don't think I'll get good grades in all of them."

"Crystal that is bollocks and you and I both know it!" Anna laughed. "You two always get good grades."

"Anyway, other people are taking six NEWTs too. Remus Lupin took six, and there are loads of people in other houses who did too," Samara covered.

"Yeah, I know several other Ravenclaw's taking six NEWTs." Max grinned. "Some are even taking seven. But five is more than enough for me."

Hel and Anna nodded in agreement; along with many others they believed that five NEWTs classes were more than enough for anyone. Then conversation fell to the school year and what fun they could have before they left Hogwarts forever and how to best leave their mark on the school. Talk of the Halloween party dominated the conversation for a while, butterbeers, firewhiskey and getting drunk the main plan for the night. Then the talk turned to the holidays yet to come and what fun they could all have together now they could all legally use magic out of school.

"You know what we really have to do before we leave Hogwarts?" Anna grinned, a wicked glint in her eye.

Everyone turned to look at her expectantly, catching the glint her eye and the wicked little chuckle she let off.

"We have to get our revenge on the Marauders and Alice Featherstone's little gang."

Around her everyone was grinning and nodding eagerly.

"You know I've been reading a few books over the holidays and I've managed to find this fantastic charm that makes people's hair fall out." Samara smirked. "I've been looking for a person to try it out on to see if I can work it properly."

Crystal winced, running a hand through her own long blonde hair protectively. "Ooh Samara you dark horse! Remind me never to get on the wrong side of you, alright sweetheart?"

Anna and George exchanged looks and burst out laughing.

"That is fantastic; we'll make a rebel of you yet." George grinned. "And what with all the free periods we have now I can spend some time in the library learning hexes to use on them. Not that you need many eh Anna?"

Anna just blushed and searched for a quick change of conversation.

When they stopped near Hogwarts it had seemed only moments ago they had boarded the train. Almost the whole journey had been spent deep in conversation; they had even managed to drag Lily in from her rounds as Head Girl and tell her of all their plans. Most of which she disapproved of on principle; although when George mentioned revenge on James Potter and Alice Featherstone her eyes had lit up. There had of course been breaks, the longest of which had been when the sweet trolley had arrived and when they had been told to get changed out of their muggle clothes and into their school robes. Out on the platform they heard the familiar voice of the school game-keeper Hagrid.

"Firs' years this way. Firs' years!"

Anna laughed, dodging several small shapes as they rushed past her towards the friendly half-giant, ready to take the boats across the great lake to the castle. She linked arms with Crystal and pulled her towards the horseless carriages that stood waiting at the other end, a skip in her step. Behind them raced George, Samara and Lily, leaving Helena and Max to catch up with their Ravenclaw house mates. They took a carriage together, just managing to all squeeze in before it set off.

When they got to the castle Anna stopped dead outside its large and ornate entrance, holding the rest of their group up.

"I can't believe this is the last time ever we're going to do this." Anna sighed, eyes seeming to search for every last detail to ingrain into her memory.

"Come on; let's get down to the Great Hall. I'm still hungry and Lily has Head Girl duties to do." Crystal smirked.

"Oh don't remind me." Lily groaned.

"You can at least take heart from watching terrified first years getting sorted." George laughed. "You'll do fine. Anyway, the sooner we get there the longer we have to think of something to distract us when the Marauders make their grand entrance to the Great Hall."

Anna started to laugh. "I'll bet a galleon on them strutting in again."

Crystal grinned at me. "I'll take you up on that bet."


	2. Chapter 2

When Anna left the Great Hall she was one galleon richer than she had been when she arrived. The Marauders had of course strutted in, heralded by a large bang and a shower of charmed sparks. They took seats a couple of people down from the five girls so just to prove a point the five of them had all started rolling their eyes and talking loudly about how sad it was that some people felt the need to cause such a commotion just to get themselves noticed. Much to their amusement Remus was looking slightly embarrassed and Peter and Sirius were glaring at them, undeterred by the love-sick puppy face James had going for him. They sat patiently through the hat's song and the annual sorting of the first years, cheering whenever some poor titch was sorted into their house. Most of the first years were looking positively terrified and they had every right to be, their first year at Hogwarts was the last year the Marauders would be here and was therefore probably going to be hell. Judging by the faces on some of them when the food finally appeared on the tables they were not going to cope particularly well with the Marauders pranks.

The five friends all tucked into the food, piling their plates high with steak and roast potatoes. After a long journey they all found they were starving and the food prepared by the Hogwarts house elves was second to none. Eventually the plates of meat and vegetables disappeared, only to be replaced with huge dishes of ice cream and plates of apple pie. Anna cut a slice of apple pie out for herself, scooping ice cream over it and tucking in.

"You know." She mused between mouthfuls of dessert. "There's only one thing I missed more than you guys, and that is Hogwarts food."

Laughing George smacked her on the back of the head. "Annabelle Spencer you are a pig, you know that?"

"But you love me anyway." She grinned.

Once everyone was full the dessert disappeared as well and Dumbledore stood to give his yearly welcome speech.

"To our new students welcome, and to our old students welcome back." He smiled. "First I would like to introduce our new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher Professor Acerbus." He gestured to a surly looking dark haired man with a goatee and a few students clapped. Dumbledore then launched into the traditional notices, nothing the girls hadn't heard a million times before of course. Finally he stopped speaking and everyone was sent up to their dorms, where their possessions would be waiting for them. Anna, Crystal and George watched, grinning widely as the first years gathered behind the prefects and head girls and boys and headed up towards the common rooms. As the group of them left without Lily they found they could hardly contain their laughter.

"Well, I know the glamour of being Head Girl is supposed to wear off eventually, but that must be a record!" Crystal giggled.

"Did you see her face when she realised James was the other head guy!" George cackled. "I wish I had a camera with me that was absolutely priceless!"

"Just so long as she doesn't see us pissing ourselves laughing. She is not going to be in a good mood and I don't want to be on the receiving end of any of Lily's wrath." Anna sighed, glancing over her shoulder.

They all glanced at each other then suddenly started running, ignoring the yells from the other students as they passed.

"You know Lily will want the bed by the door?" George grinned.

"Only because she wants to sneak out to smooch Snape." Anna laughed.

"Isn't that Samara?" George laughed, ignoring the flush on Samara's face. "We'll just have to make sure neither of them get it."

"Personally I'm plumping for the bed by the window." Crystal chuckled, her long legs allowing her to keep up with them with ease.

"Well if you want the bed you'll have to beat me to it." George laughed, racing ahead of them.

She reached the portrait of the Fat Lady first and practically yelled 'flobberworms' at her. As the portrait swung open she threw herself through it and disappeared up the girl's staircase in a blur of black and red. Anna and Crystal groaned, nearly getting hit by the closing portrait on their way through and leaving Samara stranded on the other side. When they reached their dormitory George was sat happily on the bed nearest the window.

"Mine." She confirmed, lying back on the plus covers.

Crystal dived for the bed by the door, beating Anna to it by a split second. Anna chuckled and threw herself onto the bed next to Crystal's, leaving the last two for Samara and Lily when they arrived. Of course Samara was only a split second behind, taking the bed next to George's and leaving the middle one for Lily. They released their pets from their cages, Scratch and Feather took off for the owlery immediately and Sid and Gingersnap curled up on their respective owners' beds. Finally Lily joined them, looking rather ruffled and irritable.

Of course there were no lessons on the first day back so the group had the pleasure of spending the rest of the day in the common room or wandering around the school. They had decided on sitting in the corner of the common room, taking the seats usually occupied by the Marauders, much to their annoyance. As the sounds of games of wizard chess and exploding snap sounded around them the girls fell into deep discussion about the day ahead.

"What do tomorrow's lessons look like then?" George asked.

"You mean you haven't looked at your time table yet?"

There was a small rippled giggling at Samara's amazement. After six years it was amusing that she was still shocked when George showed a less than enthusiastic attitude towards school while the rest of them were more than used to it. Anna tugged her time-table out of my robes and scanned it.

"Double potions first thing." She groaned, rubbing her temples with her fingers.

Her expression was mirrored by pretty much everyone else bar Samara. As much as they liked potions as a subject didn't like potions lessons, George least of all. Not only did it mean two hours with Professor Slughorn and his ridiculous favouritism, which only Lily and Crystal seemed to benefit from, it was also two hours with the Marauders and worst of all Severus Snape.

"Did you hear that Samara?" Crystal grinned. "Two hours for yours and Severus' eyes to meet over a bubbling cauldron."

"Oh yeah, hey, maybe you two could make out in the supply closet?"

She shot George her dirtiest look, its effect deeply diminished by her flushed cheeks and slightly fogged glasses. George knew we'd hit a nerve but it was just too good an opportunity to miss. She, and the rest of them had been teasing Samara about her slight infatuation with Severus since she had heard her muttering his name in her sleep last year.

"That's more your style than mine, don't you think?" She replied icily, picking up a potions text book and hiding her head in it.

"Oh leave her alone. Severus isn't all that bad." Lily sighed, shifting her position on the chair arm slightly.

"I beg to differ." George muttered, a slight scowl on her face although Anna was the only one who actually heard her.

"And neither is James Potter. He's quite nice once you get to know him." Crystal sighed.

"Now that I refuse to believe. He is an arrogant, bullying little toe-rag." Lily snapped.

Anna groaned and buried her head in a cushion, sending another one flying in the general direction of Lily and Crystal. This was a long standing argument between the two of them. Lily would fight the cause for Severus and Crystal would defend James. None of the rest of the group took sides, not particularly wanting to bat for either team, although had they been forced they were more likely to support James Potter than Severus, there was just something slightly creepy about him. Not just the way he was up to his ears in dark magic either.

"I still think that's just your way of trying to hide the fact you're actually crazy for the guy." Crystal smirked.

"Or you know just plain crazy."

"Thanks for that George. That was very helpful." Lily sighed. "Anyway, what's after potions?"

"I have Herbology. Great more of Severus and the Marauders." Anna muttered, eyeing the piece of paper. "That must mean you have a free."

Lily shook her head. "Yep, free for me, George and Max."

"Oh, that's not too bad. After that we can all meet up again for lunch. Then I have two free periods and we all have Transfiguration last thing." Anna finally grinned, Transfiguration was her favourite subject and the one she did best in.

"I only have one free. I have Arithmancy in the other, just before Transfiguration." Crystal mused.

"I have History Of Magic after lunch, so I only have one free as well."

Anna's eyes glittered and she grinned at Samara. "Isn't that another lesson you have with Severus? Gosh, it's like you two are never apart."

Samara lifted a rather heaving looking History Of Magic textbook and took a well-aimed throw at her friend's head, which Anna only jut managed to deflect in time with a spell.

"Hey, hey, mind the goods." She laughed nervously, looking a little pale. "Blimey, with you around it's a good thing George is a dab hand with healing spells."

"Seriously though it's about time you made a move on him. This is our last year." Crystal sighed, absent-mindedly making a couple of chess pieces float about in the air. "You're running out of time."

"And you are running out of guys." George grinned.

"I can't help being popular."

"Popular I could understand, but you're something else entirely."

Crystal glared at her, real anger flashing through her bright blue eyes, and sent the chess pieces flying towards the sandy-haired girls head. George just managed to dodge them and they smashed into the wall behind her.

"Crystal, calm down." Lily sighed. "She doesn't mean it."

Crystal nodded, brushing a few strands of platinum blonde hair behind her ear, but she didn't apologise. Anna frowned and quickly pulled them away from the subject of Crystal and her various love interests before anyone actually got injured, Madame Pomfrey wouldn't be best pleased if she had to see to them on the first day of school.

"So are you going to do it?" She asked, leaning forwards towards Samara.

"No!" She squeaked. "He'd never be interested in me."

"And why not?"

She glanced at George and shook her head sadly.

"He's far too interested in Lily. And anyway the day Severus Snape goes out with me will be the day Lily finally gives in to James."

Lily was looking affronted Crystal started giggling behind her hand.

"Well stranger things have happened." Anna smiled comfortingly. "I'm sure Lily is warming to our troublesome friend."

"When hell freezes over!" She snapped.

"I've see you staring. He's been pretty persistent, you'll give in eventually."

Suddenly George butted into the conversation, her voice raised slightly.

"So Princess, what was it like kissing Sirius Black?"

Crystal gave her a strange look, partly because of the use of a nickname she hadn't heard in years and partly because it was a strange question. George's green eyes were glittering wickedly and she was making head gestures towards a blonde fifth-year who was sat behind her practically slavering over Sirius like some sort of demented dog. Crystal smirked and the whole group found themselves leaning in closer so they could pick out every word she said. In the two years since Crystal had been caught snogging Sirius Black in the common room no one had ever asked her what it was like. They soon found they didn't have to lean in so close as when she started speaking Crystal's voice was louder than usual.

"Oh it was amazing; he's a very good kisser." She paused, staring dreamily off into space. "Well he's had a lot of practice hasn't he? But really, those lips…"

George was making gagging motions. "Don't overdo it." She hissed.

Crystal just winked at her. "You're just jealous. Really Georgina, you haven't been kissed until you've been kissed by Sirius Black."

The fifth-year was looking enraged and Anna started laughing, her attempts to hide it behind a coughing fit failing terribly, Crystal may have gone a little overboard but it had worked. The laughter stopped suddenly as the girls face grew a lot more shocked and angry. Pulling her gaze away from the girl Anna turned to see Sirius stood behind Crystal with the rest of the Marauders a few feet away.

"Wow Crystal, I didn't know you still rated me so highly. If you're ever up for round two…?" He smirked, flipping his hair over his shoulder.

"Keep dreaming Black. I was just taunting the fangirlies." She sniffed, waving her wand around carelessly as she spoke.

Sirius let out a short bark-like laugh, warily taking a step back out of the immediate range of Crystal's wand.

"You keep telling yourself that Crystal. Like I said, if you're ever up for round two don't hesitate to ask." He winked at her, turning and walking away with his friends, grabbing Potter's arm as he passed to get him to follow.

"Pig."

There was a general rumble of laughter at Lily's reaction and looked at Crystal carefully. She was attempting to look annoyed but secretly she was pleased and they all knew it.

"You better not take him up on that offer." Lily warned.

"I won't." She re-assured, smoothing down her hair.

Anna grinned at her and said no more. They all knew Crystal's word was good, plenty of boys had come and gone since Sirius, many of them lasting longer, but she liked to be remembered and offers of second rounds, although nearly always turned down, never failed to put a smile on her face.

Behind George the little blonde fifth year looked about ready to curse them into oblivion on the spot.

"Come on, let's go wandering before George or Crystal get us all hexed. It's not curfew yet." Lily grimaced, following my gaze towards the Sirius fan girl.

They wandered along the corridors together, passing several older students on their way. The majority of them were fifth years who were relishing their new power to be out on the corridors until nine. The novelty wore off after a couple of weeks but it was best to let them enjoy it while it lasted. There were sixth and seventh year students as well of course, and for a little while the girls were sidetracked into a conversation with Lucy Preston, a pleasant seventh year Hufflepuff prefect. Finally they reached a deserted corridor not far from the Ravenclaw tower with windows that looked out over the forbidden forest. This was one of Anna's favourite places to come and sit when she wanted to think as it was so peaceful and usually empty, it was here they stopped to continue their discussion.

"Gosh, this is our last year." Anna sighed, staring out of the window as she perched on the sill. "It still hasn't sunk in."

"I always said you were thick-skulled Anna." George laughed.

Anna turned and half-glared at her, then something suddenly dawned on me.

"You know what? In the six and a bit years you have known me you've completely failed to come up with a nickname for me."

"I know. But can you blame me? I mean, six and a bit years with you lot! Satan couldn't think up a worse punishment, and now you expect me to be able to nickname you all? I'm not superwoman." She chuckled.

The brunette smirked flicking her wand in the air. "Did you want me to hex you?"

George chuckled and held up her hands in mock surrender. It was well known that simple hexes were something of a speciality of Anna's, nothing serious of course just things like jelly legs and the bat bogey hex but it was good enough to keep most people out of her way when she wanted them to be. Even before arriving at Hogwarts her father, wary that she would be bullied as he was, started to teach her some simple hexes much to the annoyance of both her mother and her stepmother, who both thought that it would turn her into as much of a bully as the people my father wanted to defend her against and were also both fully aware this broke wizarding laws. Anna was a quick learner however and even on the first day she could perform adequate enough a jelly legs hex to get her out of sticky situations, as Lydon Ramsey found out much to his annoyance.

"Six years." Samara sighed. "It seems like only yesterday…"

"Well it was yesterday, give or take six years and a day." Crystal smiled. "But I know what you mean."

"Shall we reminisce?" Anna grinned, leaning back against the cool stone wall and closing her eyes.

iA young Anna stood staring in the direction her father had just vanished unsure of what to do with herself. Her eyes flicked sideways to the twins stood beside her, the children of a man and woman her father had been deep in conversation with only moments before. The girl made to speak to her but her brother grabbed her arm and dragged her away, muttering something about not wanting to get involved with 'her kind'. Ann was hurt and confused, what did he mean by her kind? She was a witch just like them. Tears started brimming in her eyes and she felt in my pocket for her wand, silently wishing she was brave enough to hex them.

"Ignore him. People like him aren't worth bothering with." A voice said brightly beside me.

Anna quickly wiped her tears away and turned to see who had addressed her. There stood a pretty blonde girl about her age with a broad smile on her face. She held out a perfectly manicured hand to her.

"I'm Crystal Rosaline Hawkwind, but you can call me Crystal." She beamed. "This is going to be my first year at Hogwarts. It's terribly exiting isn't it? I hope I'm in Gryffindor, all my family have been Gryffindors so far."

Anna was slightly taken aback but she shook this new girls hand and smiled nervously.

"Annabelle. Erm, Annabelle Spencer." She mumbled, her voice wavering slightly.

"Oh a Spencer? Your father works at the ministry doesn't he?"

Anna nodded slowly, not sure what to think.

"My daddy works at the ministry too. He's Deputy Undersecretary To The Minister. What department does your dad work in?"

Anna paused to think, still more than slightly puzzled by this over-exuberant girl. She seemed to be made of sheer energy and sugar sweetness, if there had been a welcoming committee this kid would have run it.

"Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, I think."

"Oh wow that's so cool." Crystal beamed, grabbing the brunette's hand. "Look there's another kid looking lost, let's go say hello. You can never make too many friends before school starts you know. What house do you think you'll be in? And is that your owl, he's awfully cute."

Anna was dragged along by the little ball of energy that was Crystal Hawkwind towards a rather timid looking girl standing awkwardly by her case and staring at the big red train. Crystal, her case skimming along behind her, rushed up and skidded to a halt. She freed her hand from mine and presented it to the girl.

"Hey are you new too? My name is Crystal and this is Annabelle. Do you want to be our friend? What house do you think you'll be in? I hope it's the same one as me."

While Crystal babbled Anna took the time to study the girl carefully. She was short, several inches shorter than both Anna and Crystal, skinny and quite awkward looking with knobbly knees and bony elbows. Her skin had this gorgeous golden glow to it and behind the glasses and fringe there was pair of dark, dark brown eyes. She stared at the two newcomers for a while, slightly shocked like Anna had been at first and also slightly afraid. Eventually she warily shook Crystal's hand, looking like she half expected it to blow up.

"I'm Samara Aneksi." She smiled.

"Aneksi? You're Egyptian?" Crystal gasped.

"My mother is," she paused. "You're not a Hawkwind are you?"

Crystal nodded excitedly.

"I've seen pictures of your family in the papers, your father works for the minister doesn't he? My father is a Belering, I kept my mother's maiden name, like she did."

Crystal's eyes lit up and she was about to say something when a scruffy-looking sandy haired girl pushed past them and into the centre of their little circle. The three girls all froze, staring at her in shock and all thinking that this girl was about to cause trouble. Their fear was soon dissipated as the girl crouched down in front of Samara's case and started cooing at the little ginger kitten sat in a basket on top of it. Finally she stood up and grinned at them.

"Sorry 'bout that, but I've been looking for someone else with a cat for ages. There aren't many people here and it looks like everyone has uowls/u." She paused and glanced at Crystal and Anna apologetically, ruffling her hair with one hand. "Not that there's anything wrong with having owls, it's just there was no way my parents were going to let me have a bird around the house. But they did let me bring my cat; I was looking for a friend for him."

She gestured to her trunk and the sleek tortoiseshell sat on top of it.

"That's Sid and I'm George."

Anna glanced at her sceptically. "Isn't George a boy's name?"

"My name's Georgina, but if you start calling me that I'll have to punch you," she shrugged "and I'd hate for us to get off on the wrong foot or anything."

There was a little bit of nervous laughter from the rest of them. You had to admire the girl's attitude, even if her clothes were being held together with safety pins.

"I'm Crystal, this is Annabelle and that's Samara. We all just met." Crystal beamed.

"Awesome, should we all get on the train now?"

Crystal nodded and as we headed towards the Hogwarts Express she gave them all that 'Miss World' perfect smile.

"I hope we're all in the same house. We could be friends forever that way."/i

Anna opened my eyes again and glanced at her group of friends.

"And we met you on the train didn't we Lily?" She asked.

Lily nodded and George started laughing.

"Yeah, I think she was giving Potter an earful because he threw Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans at your head." She grinned. "Not changed a bit, either of you."

"Oh hush." Lily snorted. "I wasn't that bad."

"You still are." Anna grinned. "But its weird isn't it? Who knew we'd still be friends all these years later."

"I did." Crystal said firmly. "I said on our very first day we could be friends forever."

"So you did. Come on it's nearly curfew and as much as I still think a nine o'clock curfew is ridiculous I don't want a detention on my first day back."


	3. Chapter 3

"Anna, wake up."

Anna rolled over, squeezing her eyes shut and burying her head in the pillow so that chestnut waves fell all over its red cover.

"You do know you were mumbling about Sirius Black in your sleep?"

Her eyes snapped open wide and she shot up in bed, glaring angrily at Lily and Crystal who had just burst into fits of giggles on the bottom of her bed.

"Well from that reaction I wouldn't be surprised if you were." Crystal smirked.

"Oh yeah." Anna scowled using her best sarcastic voice. "I'm completely head over heels in love with that self-absorbed bully."

"You said it not me." Crystal laughed airily. "Now hurry up and get up."

"Come on Anna, we're going to be late for breakfast." Lily sighed ducking out of the red velvet curtain.

"You know that would have worked just as well to get me out of bed." Anna grumbled as they headed out of the room.

"I know, you never could resist food, but that was much more fun!"

Crystal quickly dodged out of the door, which was now turning an unpleasant shade of green. The hex had been meant for her, and would have hit her had she not dodged just in time. Making things change colour was another of Anna's specialities. Frowning to herself she speedily got dressed and skipped down to the nearly-deserted common room where the rest of the group were sat on the couches waiting for her impatiently.

"Finally! I'm bloody starving here. Let's go eat." George snorted, leading the way down to the Great Hall.

Breakfast was, as always, noisy. Most of the pupils were already seated by the time the group of girls got down there and the plates in the middle of the tables were piled high with food. Feeling several pairs of eyes upon them as they walked through the hall to their table they took their usual seats at the Gryffindor table; a few places down from the Marauders, and tucked in. Within minutes George was shovelling bacon into her mouth; Anna laughed at her and shook her head, lifting a few slices of toast onto her own plate. Suddenly there was a great deal of screeching from the first years and the fluttering of wings. Several people glanced up and grinned to see that the post had arrived. Owls swooped down and dropped letters and parcels in their owner's laps. A great grey dropped Lily's Daily Prophet on the table in front of her and Hex, Anna's father's eagle owl landed beside her, a letter clasped firmly in his beak. She frowned and took the letter from him not expecting a letter so early in the term, especially not on the first day. Hex made an irritated hoot and started pecking and scratching at her hand. Anna sighed; she was reminded forcibly of her own owl Scratch and figured this was where he had learnt his manners. She batted the owl away and held out a piece of toast for him which he snatched greedily.

"There you go, thanks Hex." She smiled, gently stroking his head.

Satisfied he flew off out of the Great Hall, presumably back home for a nap.

"A letter so early?" Samara asked, looking up.

"What have you done?" George teased.

Anna shrugged opening up the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper covered in her father's easy curved handwriting.

centerfont facemonotype corsivaAnnabelle,

Sorry to send a letter so early but Chelsey insisted. She says you took her favourite perfume with you to Hogwarts. If you did can you please send it back with Hex as quickly as possible, she's been driving Emma and I spare. If you don't have it then I guess we'll just have to deal with her.

Oh and try to behave yourself this year.

Lots of love, Dad x/center/font

Anna gave a disbelieving snort and all four heads lifted to look at her questioningly.

"What was all that about?" Samara asked, sipping delicately at a glass of orange juice.

"My sister thinks I stole her perfume." She grumbled, flipping the parchment over and pulling out a quill and ink to scribble her reply.

centerfont faceBradley hand itcDad, why would I want Chelsey's perfume? If I need to smell nice I can always brew up something myself thanks.

Tell her to check under her bed or her desk where it iusually/i is.

Oh and warn her that I can still use magic out of school over summer.

Anna x

Ps. I always behave myself./center/font

"I better send this back with Scratch, Chelsey's been throwing fits at home apparently."

"Don't be too long." Lily warned. "Remember we have potions first thing and I wouldn't want to be late if I were you, not after what happened at the end of last year."

Anna grimaced and nodded, running up towards the owlery.

She stopped running after the first flight of stairs, wary of the moving staircases and their trick steps. Finally she reached the owlery at the top of the west tower. As she entered the owlery, wrinkling her nose at the stink of owl-droppings, several owls ruffled their feathers and turned their wide eyes to stare at her. She quickly picked out Scratch's distinctive hoot and headed over towards him, only to find Hex staring grumpily at her. She started for a second before smiling softly at the older owl and sticking out her hand to stroke her own.

"Scratch can you take this back to dad for me?" She muttered, tying the parchment to his leg. "And come straight back afterwards."

Scratch snatched a half-eaten piece of toast out of her hand and took off out of the window. Hex sat still on his perch, eyeing her carefully for any more pieces of parchment a slightly derogatory look in his eyes. That made her laugh.

"It's alright buddy, you can rest up here for a while then head home."

Shaking her head to herself Anna turned and headed out of the owlery, quickly making her way down the many flights of stairs towards the dungeons. She decided she hadn't been in there too long and if she was lucky and moved quickly she would catch up with everyone else on the way down.

Unfortunately for Anna she wasn't lucky, a couple of the staircases chose that time to move and by the time they had moved back she had finally got down to the dungeon level the corridors were practically empty. She grimaced and sped up her pace. Lily was right, after the incident at the end of last year being late for her first lesson back was not a good idea.

"Running around by yourself Spencer? Did your friends finally realise they're too good for you?" A voice sneered from the shadows.

Slowly Anna turned to see Alice Featherstone and her two cronies Celeste and Rhiannon all sneering at her. In the darkness Alice's hair seemed to glow silver. With a sort she turned and headed towards the potions classroom, completely ignoring the three Slytherins something in her was telling her that had been a bad move, but the rest of her was telling her that she couldn't risk being late for her first lesson of term and at least if Alice and cronies were here then she couldn't be late, Alice and Celeste were unever/u late for Slughorn's lessons.

"Don't you ignore ime/i" She screeched. "bRistavultus!/b"

"bProtego/b." Anna muttered, flicking her wand out of her cloak and slowly turning on the spot as the curse bounced off the newly formed shield. "Breakwater been teaching you a few spells then?"

"His name is Sebastian." Alice seethed, raising her wand again. "Not that someone as disgusting as you would have any right to call him that."

Frowning Anna muttered a few words under her breath, watching in amusement as the three girls were attacked by their bogies. Bat bogey hex, a real classic. While they were distracted the brunette used to time to quickly change Alice's hair to a sickly green colour, something she knew would really get to the ridiculously vain Slytherin. Satisfied she tucked her hair behind her ear and walked away, leaving them to their screeching and flailing. Just as she reached the corner there was a flash of light and a voice yelled out behind her.

"bLocomotor Mortis!/b"

Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks, her legs frozen together by the spell. 'iI should stop underestimating Rhiannon. Just because she's an idiot doesn't mean she doesn't know uany/u magic./i' She reminded herself, cursing repeatedly under her breath. Alice and Celeste walked past a few seconds later, bogey free and giggling. Celeste gave her a hard shove which, because her legs were frozen together, sent her sprawling onto the floor. They left her there helpless and forced to listen to their malicious laughter while unable to do anything.

Luckily because Rhiannon was such a poor witch the leg-locker curse wore off after a minute or so, but sill the run in with Alice and co had left her late for potions and with a horrible urge to curse someone into oblivion. The combination of these two factors meant that as she thundered down the hallways she paid no attention to where she was going or what anyone would say if they caught her running. Seconds later she rushed straight into someone, falling back on her ass and bruising it on the hard stone floor. Scowling she uttered a long string of less than ladylike curse words and started to scrabble for her spilled books. Above her she heard a chuckle and, grabbing the last of her books, she looked up to give the guy an earful he probably didn't deserve but the words froze on her lips when she saw who exactly it was she was about to yell at. Sirius Black. Bollocks. Anna gave him her best glare, trying to ignore the fact that out of all the people in the school, with the exception of the Slytherins, Sirius Black was one of those people you didn't want to embarrass yourself in front of. Mostly because they would never let your forget it. Sirius still hadn't forgotten the time Kathyrn Barrett had nearly fallen off her broom in third year when a bird flew out of one of the trees in the forest. Finally she stopped glaring at him and found that, now she was looking at him properly it wasn't hard to see why he was one of the biggest heartbreakers in the school. After all he wasn't exactly ibad/i looking by any standards and they way those grey eyes sparkled when he laughed. i'Oh shut up Anna!'/i She scolded herself. i'For one thing you've been in the same house as him for the past six years and he's one of the most infuriating people on the planet and secondly you're late for potions and sitting here drooling will not get you there any faster. Now is unot/u the time to be developing a crush.'

"Are you okay?" He smirked. "Or are you always a drooling idiot?"

Anna stopped talking to herself immediately and got to her feet, fixing Sirius with another cold glare and huffing irritably. As she started to walk away she tried to push the image of Sirius staring at her strangely out of her head.

"Wait a minute, I recognise you…"

She stopped dead and turned to give him a 'thanks for that useless information' look. "I should think so; I've been in your house for the past seven years. And I'm in three, no, make that four of your N.E.W.Ts classes."

He appeared to think for a few moments.

"You're friends with Crystal Hawkwind aren't you? The…"

"Yes. The 'tart with the boobs'." She cut him off, waving her hand dismissively. The problem with beings friends with Crystal was not only that you were almost constantly overshadowed by her, but also that you soon simply became known as the friend of 'that Gryffindor tart with the boobs', which was a reputation Crystal was semi-proud of and upheld with great fervour. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm late for potions."

Holding her head high Anna turned back around and marched down the hallway towards her potions lesson, doing her best to block out the sound of laughter and footsteps behind her. Glancing sideways she saw Sirius running up and striding along beside her, his long legs making it easy for him to keep up with her shorter ones.

"I was going to say 'the one who's dad works for the minister' but your version works just as well." He smirked, smoothing down his hair. "Actually it works better if I remember correctly. And I think I'll accompany you to potions, I'm in the class too if you hadn't noticed…"

"How could I not?" She grumbled under my breath. "Really? You know I never noticed the two idiots at the back of the classroom making as much noise and causing as many accidents as possible."

Sirius cocked and eyebrow at her but she ignored him valiantly, rolling her eyes.

"Fine. You can walk with me if you insist but if you don't shut up I'm going to hex you."

Judging by the look on his face Sirius was as shocked by Anna's tone as she was. Having been in lessons with her for a good six years he had got the impression she wasn't this snappy, and as her face flushed slightly he smiled in the knowledge he was right. Anna meanwhile was silently cursing herself, she had always endeavoured to make a good first impression and although they were housemates she had never actually had a conversation with Sirius before, but the run in with the Slytherins and being late for Slughorn's lesson had put her in a foul mood that running head long into him had just made much worse.

By the time they reached the door of the potions classroom any suggestions Anna had of the start of an infatuation with Sirius had been well and truly quashed Sirius's face was almost purple from yelling although no noise came from him. He had not shut up like Anna had told him, despite more than one warning and his constant arrogance had eventually annoyed her that much that she put the silencio charm on him. Standing outside the door she leant against the wall, looking at him with one eyebrow raised and a smirk on her face.

"Oh really stop making suck a racket. Who knew you could be so loud?" She chuckled, flicking my wand. "I did warn you."

"I'll get you back for that." Sirius growled, shoving past her into the classroom.

"I'm quaking in my boots." Anna retorted in her usual sarcastic way, expect this time she really was quite scared. Sirius, James and Remus were three of the best students in the school and they were pretty devious with it. She knew that if Sirius held by his thread and decided he was going to get her back it was going to be something big and not pleasant and she already had enough on my plate this year with NEWTs. Pausing for a moment to gather her breath and calm herself Anna pushed the door to the classroom open once more and slipped inside.

As she closed the door behind her she expected to hear the deep and wheezing voice of Professor Slughorn taking points from Gryffindor house. Instead all she could hear was the scratching of chalk on a blackboard. Silently she crept across the classroom and took her usual place beside Crystal, exchanging a sly gin with her best friend. A few seats down the bench George grinned at her and Lily was shooting her the 'there better be a very good reason for this' look, which meant she was going to be in trouble later whether Slughorn realised she was late or not. Samara was the only one of their group who didn't take any notice of Anna's late arrival to class, wrapped up as she was in studying Severus's facial features with a dreamy look on her face. While Professor Slughorn droned on and on about the importance of this year and NEWTs George, Lily and Crystal all leant in towards Anna.

"bMuffliato./b" Crystal murmured, giving her wand a quick wave. "Right now we can all have a conversation in peace you have to tell us what happened. Slughorn will be droning on for ages."

"Yeah, you and Sirius Black both coming in late, right after one another. And he looked a bit ruffled…" George interjected, grinning and waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

"Mhm. You're moving faster than me Anna my dear; I mean it is only the first day of term." Crystal grinned.

"Are you completely bonkers?!" Anna snorted looking completely and utterly disgusted.

"Yes, I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason for Anna being late that idoesn't/i involve shenanigans with Sirius Black." Lily prompted.

Anna gave her a half-smile glad that at least someone was taking her side for once, even if Lily was only really doing it because she disapproved of her being late to lesson. The rest of the girls were gently nudging her, prompting her to get on with her story.

"Well on the way back from the owlery I ran into Alice and co…" She started, watching their faces as she relayed the events of the last ten minutes "…he talks far too much, so I put silencio on him until we got here. He said he was going to get me back though, so I guess I have another thing to worry about."

Suddenly realising Professor Slughorn had finally stopped talking and started to do a little teaching Anna sighed and glanced back up at the board where the words font facepapyrusBefuddlement Draught/font and a list of potion ingredients had appeared.

"The method can be found on page twenty three of Advanced Potion Making." He told the class. "And seeing as you are all already in pairs you can get straight to it. Ah, Miss Spencer, how kind of you to join us."

Anna winced, annoyed to find out that she hadn't managed to get away with being late and Slughorn had in fact, despite first impressions, noticed her earlier absence from the classroom. Crystal quickly removed the muffliatio charm and elbowed her best friend hard in the ribs, almost causing her to yelp in pain but at least it removed the scowl from her face and spurred her into action.

"Sorry professor, I ran into a little trouble on the way down to lesson. It won't happen again."

"Fine, fine." Slughorn nodded vaguely then turned and started working through grading papers on his desk.

"Good thing old Slughorn is more bothered about grading papers than students being late." Crystal smiled. "I don't think Lily would have taken too kindly to you loosing us points on the first day back."

Anna nodded but said nothing; they all knew how Lily could get about house points. She started to chop up some scurvy grass while Crystal measured out various things. At the other side of the classroom Alice and Celeste were giggling like idiots and repeatedly pointing at Anna, doing impressions of someone being frozen and falling over. Catching them out of the corner of her eye she frowned, bending her head over my chopping board and trying her best to ignore them while taking solace in the fact that she can't have looked half as stupid as they did while they were trying to fend off the bat bogey hex. Half way through the lesson a note-bird fluttered around the class, catching the attention of several students, finally landing right in front of Anna. She shot a sideways glance at Crystal, who was too busy with their potion to have noticed and assumed that this must be some note from Alice and Celeste poking fun so she valiantly tried to ignore it. Soon this became difficult and painful work as the note had started viciously pecking at her fingers demanding to be read. In favour of salvaging her fingers she grabbed the note which immediately stopped moving and unfolded it, finding it to be written in some untidy scrawl she didn't recognise.

centerfont familyBradley hand itc I uwill/u get you back Spencer./font/center

Placing the note flat on the desk she elbowed Crystal hard in the ribs. Crystal looked up, looking terribly annoyed until she spotted the piece of paper. She snatched it off the desk, her eyes quickly scanning over it. With a glance at each other the two turned and looked over towards the back of the classroom. Sure enough James Potter and Sirius Black were huddled over their cauldron muttering conspiratorially between themselves and pointing at Anna. Sirius, sensing someone was watching them, looked up and, catching sight of Anna he smirked and waved.

"Bugger."

"Well, this just means we'll have to be on full alert at all times." Crystal grinned, flicking the note over to Lily and George.

"Well, I'd rather not have to deal with them uas well/u. I mean, we already have the Slytherins on our case and with NEWTs coming up this year…"

Crystal shrugged. "We'll cope."

That was one of the many times Anna found she regretted becoming friends with Crystal Hawkwind. Not only was she a boy magnet but she was clever with it, she could probably pass her NEWTs without so much as looking at a text book. Well that was a slight exaggeration but still, sometimes it seemed like she was so god damned perfect it was no wonder people were reluctant to befriend her for long. Feeling her temper rising slightly Anna nearly snapped at her but she bit her tongue just in time, this little feud wasn't something worth arguing with a friend over, especially not one she had known as long as Crystal.

"I guess we will."

Four of the gang left potions as fast as they could; Samara had elected to stay behind for a little while with Severus under the guise of talking to Professor Slughorn about NEWTs and the Slug Club, something Crystal was also involved in but had managed to evade for the best part of three years. However staying behind meant that when Samara did show her face in Herbology she would be subjected to the usual light mockery, some of which she'd already had to endure while the rest of them were leaving potions, although they were now anxious not to be late for Professor Sprout's lesson.

"So now you have the Marauders after you as well?" Lily asked.

Anna nodded glumly and Lily gave her the 'I really don't know how you get yourself into these kinds of situations' look. It was just one of the many faces of Lily Evans, a look for every occasion.

"Well personally I think we should give them what's coming to them." George chuckled. "I mean they're not bad guys at all really, but they could damn well do with being taken down a peg or two."

Lily glanced at her. "Well…"

"Oh come on Lils, you iknow/i you want to give them what's coming to them. You hate Potter." George whined.

"We have better things to do than get involved in a feud with the Marauders! We have NEWTs coming up and we need to be studying." She grumbled. "And all you'll do is get more points taken from Gryffindor."

"A feud? A feud?" George cackled. "It's not going to be a feud. Really, you're making it sound like we're about to wage war."

"This is Potter and Black, we uare/u about to wage war." Anna reminded her casually before sneaking a sideways glance at her red-haired friend. "Lily, there's no need for you to get involved if you don't want to. Actually, there's no need for any of you to get involved, it's only me he's mad at."

"Yeah, but you'll get murdered if we don't have your back." Crystal laughed, elbowing her friend in the side. "Personally I think Sirius would look positively stunning in a dress. The fangirls will have a fit."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence there." Anna chuckled, shooting the blonde a fake glare. "Crystal, you are a menace."

"Only happy to be of service." She chuckled, twirling her wand. "But really, I wouldn't want to see anything happen to you because of some stupid arrogant bullies."

"Awh, you're going to sort Alice and Celeste out for me?"

"That's point two on the agenda."

"Hey! We're all getting involved with that." George snorted. "Even Lils here."

Lily grumbled something under her bed but there was no mistaking the glint in her green eyes, she wanted revenge on the two bitchy Slytherins as much as the rest of us. As the group came to a halt outside greenhouse seven Anna and Crystal turned to look at their friends inquisitively.

"Wait a minute, what are you two doing coming down here? You don't take Herbology."

George grinned. "Just thought we should walk you down, you know, in case someone jumps out at you again Anna. Lils and I have a free, don't we Lily dearest?"

Lily nodded, glancing furtively towards the castle eager to get back there and get started on the homework Slughorn had already landed us with. Placing her hands firmly on her hips Anna glared at George.

"I'm not a first year, I can handle myself." She protested, azure eyes flashing angrily.

"Yep fine, see you at lunch." George laughing, shoving Anna and Crystal through the greenhouse doors and bounding away with Lily before either of her friends had a chance to hex her.


	4. Chapter 4

"So let me get this straight." Samara frowned, piling shepherd's pie onto her plate as the group all gathered around for dinner. "You have single-handedly managed to start a war?"

"It's not a war!" Anna protested, although the effect had worm off slightly after a whole hour of doing it. "Sirius is just mad at me because I hurt his pride. And we all know that his pride is almost as important to his as his looks."

Beside her George was unable to contain her laughter and snorted loudly into her pumpkin juice.

"Oh how very ladylike." Anna grinned, brushing a few droplets of juice off her robes.

"Well I don't think you've got the year off to a very good start." Lily sniffed. "Not only were you late for your first lesson of the year you've managed to start a feud with some of the biggest trouble makers in the school. This could have disastrous effects on your NEWTs. Which, may I remind you, are this year."

Anna, completely aware that the NEWTs were at the end of the year after having been reminded by every teacher they'd had that day did her best to ignore Lily by quickly moving onto a different subjects.

"Mhm, talking of being late you and dear old Severus were rather late for Herbology Samara." She smirked glancing over at the petite Egyptian. "What happened?"

George jumped on this little titbit like a Niffler to gold, her green eyes lighting up and a slightly wicked laugh coming from her mouth.

"Ooh, did you get up to a little naughty business in the potions classroom? Your eyes meeting over a simmering cauldron, you unable to resist his hooked nose and the glow from his greasy hair."

Samara was slowly getting redder and redder but she didn't say anything, making the mistake of letting George get into her stride. Once that happened she was near unstoppable unless you hexed her and a couple of the girls groaned, Anna even chose to watch the scene from between her fingers, half afraid of what would happen next.

"Is he a good kisser Books? Or did you get further than that? How about a quick shag in the supply closet?"

Samara looked well and truly affronted and angry by now, her face a brilliant shade of red that matches the stripes on her tie beautifully. Crystal was biting into her first in an effort to stop herself bursting into loud peals of laughter, her face also a rather attractive shade of pink. Lily's eyes had widened in fear and Anna still hadn't come out from behind her hand.

"Georgina Louise Edwards." Samara hissed. "If you don't button it right now I'll hex you to hell and back."

George was grinning still but now there was a mixture of apprehension and anger in her eyes. You didn't call George by her full name unless you wanted to get into a muggle brawl, but then again they rarely heard Samara use that tone of voice with anyone unless she was incredibly angry.

"Come on Books, I was only teasing."

"Don't you 'Books' me." She growled, pointing her wand at George's face. "I've had it up to here with your 'teasing'. You know full well that unlike some people I am not that kind of girl, and you also know full well that Severus has no interest in me. He's far too caught up in obsessing over Lily."

"Hey! Leave me out of this." Lily yelped.

"And slurs on my moral standards, whatever they may be are not appreciated." Crystal added in, folding her arms over her chest.

"Come on Samara, calm down." Anna murmured, still not looking her friend in the eye for fear of being yelled at as well.

"No! She is always winding me up and I've had enough." She snapped, sending the plate full of Shepard's pie flying at George's face before standing up and storming out of the Great Hall.

The rest of the group sat in silence watching her as she stormed out. Several other people had looked up at the commotion as well and there was a small ripple of laughter as a couple of them noticed George's pie covered face, although most were quickly silenced with glares from her. The only ones who refused to quiet down were James, Sirius and Peter, although that was to be expected. Anna and George both leant forwards and glared down the table at them which Sirius returned with equal vehemence.

"She'll calm down soon enough George." Anna sighed, glancing back at the hall doors as if she expected Samara to re-appear any time soon.

She didn't.

"Yes, but you shouldn't have pushed her like that. You know how sensitive she is about Severus and you do always push it too far." Lily put in.

Leave it down to Lily Evans to speak her mind. If there is one person you can always count on to speak their mind it would be Lily Evans, it's a bit of a bad habit really. There was a nervous silence at the table, it was expected that George would snap at Lily but to everyone's amazement she just nodded, pulling lumps of meat out of her hair.

"Yeah well…" She mumbled. "I'm going to go and wash myself off and get changed. I'll see you guys 6th period."

"Alright, I'll talk to her in transfiguration for you. You know she'll be right as rain by the end of the day." Anna smiled reassuringly, not entirely sure whether she believed that herself.

George nodded dejectedly and headed out of the hall up towards the bathrooms, shooting death glares at anyone who even dared to smirk at her as she passed.

"What a start to the year."

Crystal and Anna were heading up to the common room after lunch for their free period together when Sirius made his move to get revenge on Anna. He spotted her brown hair bobbing along through the crush of students, taking slight sadistic pleasure as her face twitched with discomfort every time her bag bumped into her hip. Carefully he pulled his wand out of his pocket, silently thanking Professor Lambert for teaching them non-verbal spells so brilliantly before he left. A spark of light left the end of his wand and there was a loud ripping noise and the clatter of quills and books hitting the floor. He gave a short bark of laughter as he spotted Anna scrabbling about on the floor to gather up her things, earning him a sharp jab in the ribs from Remus, who wasn't looking best pleased.

"That was brilliant mate." James laughed, slapping his friend heartily on the back.

Sirius completely ignored Remus and smirked arrogantly at James.

"Well I always was brilliant." He chuckled, starting to walk towards the mess that was Anna's belongings.

He stopped a few feet away from her, twirling his wand expertly between his fingers and laughing as she struggled to collect all her fallen possessions. She heard him and her head snapped up, eyes burning with humiliated rage, Sirius merely smirked.

"Told you I would get you back."

She glared but didn't say a word so the group of Marauders walked past, James and Sirius laughing between themselves. Sirius didn't see was Anna pulling her wand out of her robes and pointing it at his feet, but he heard the incantation and felt the effects.

"bCadocorpo./b"

With a grunt Sirius fell flat on his face, to uproarious laughter from his friends and a wicked giggling from Anna. Pleased with herself she quickly gathered the last of her things muttering "breparo/b" at her bag and getting to her feet. Crystal, who had been chasing down a couple of ink bottles that had rolled down the hallway returned to her side and linked arms with her best friend.

Heads held high they walked past Sirius, Anna even pausing to smile sweetly at him.

"See you in the common room Black."

Sirius growled and whipped his wand out of his robes, pointing it at Anna's back. He had just opened his mouth to hex her when he heard Professor Sinstra's piercing voice from behind him.

"Sirius Black, no magic in the corridors! Five points from Gryffindor."

Just to add to his humiliation Anna and Crystal had heard as well and their giggling carried down the hallway towards him. Gritting his teeth he got to his feet, willing the professor to disappear before the two girls got around the corner and were safe from his hexes.

"Don't you have something to say?" Sinstra asked irritably.

Growling as his targets disappeared Sirius turned slowly to the professor, placing his wand back into his pocket.

"Sorry professor won't let you see it happen again." He grumbled.

"Very well." She sniffed, briskly walking away down the corridor.

"You're not going to do magic in the corridors?" James asked him, hazel eyes widening in disbelief.

"No." Sirius smirked. "I'm not going to let her isee/i me doing magic in the corridors."

"Brilliant." James chuckled.

"Like I said, I know I'm brilliant."

"Come on; let's get back to the common room while your head had still fit through the door." Remus sighed. "And be glad we're getting a little peace and quiet to study in while Peter has History of Magic."

Sirius let out an echoing bark of a laugh and nodded, starting to walk towards the common room again, Remus and James just behind him.

A little further up the corridor Anna and Crystal were walking arm in arm, talking between themselves about what had just happened.

"Well, I don't think he's going to get off your case any time soon. Not after you tripped him up in front of so many people." Crystal grinned, glancing down at her friend. "But on the plus side, Lily is going to have a fit when she finds out he lost us five points already."

"How is that a plus?"

"Well she won't be yelling as us will she?" Crystal grinned.

Anna laughed and nodded, her eyes catching sight of the portrait of the fat lady that hid the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. She tugged a little harder at Crystal's arm, increasing her speed ever so slightly. When he friend held her back at their usual slow pace she turned pleading eyes on her.

"Hurry up Crystal; I need to get this potions essay done today."

"What's making you so eager to do homework? Are you secretly Lily Evans in disguise or has Sirius cast some spell on you that's rattled your brain?"

Anna laughed dryly. "I just figured I better get this done and do it well. You know, to make up for the fact that I was late this morning and for the fact I nearly blew up the potions classroom last year." She raised her voice as they got within a few feet of the portrait. "Flobberworms."

Crystal smirked. "No to mention that you put Slughorn in the hospital wing for a week."

"I thought we agreed never to speak of that again." Anna grumbled, stepping through the opening and throwing her bag down on the nearest available table.

"Oh don't be like that." Crystal laughed. "Come on, what was the essay on anyway?"

"Potions to Confuse: Their Properties and Uses." Anna quoted in what was a passable impression of Professor Slughorn's wheezy voice.

Crystal chuckled and nodded, pulling out her parchment and quill. They both bent their heads down over their homework, quills making a scratching noise as they flew over the paper as quickly as the owners hands would allow. For a long while the only noise in the common room was the scratching of quills and the rustling of parchment or the turning of a page, occasionally punctuated by the portrait swinging open and the footsteps of a student entering or leaving. It was unusual for the common room to be so quiet even during a free period, but as it was still summer those students who didn't want to study were relaxing in the school grounds.

"You're as bad as he is! Hexing whoever you feel like just because you can."

Several heads shot up as Lily's yelling cut across the calm and quiet of the common room. Anna winced and hid her face behind her hair, Lily was making a scene and she wasn't even inside yet.

"Don't look at me like that Black; you know perfectly well that I'm right. And Remus, couldn't you have at least tried to stop him? You're umeant/u to be a prefect. Honestly, every year the four of you single-handedly loose us more points than the rest of the house put together and it's with stupid stunts like that!"

The portrait swung open and every pair of eyes in the common room moved towards it, hoping to see some sort of duel, anything to pull them from the constant tedium of study. A couple of people smirked as a rather defeated and angry looking Sirius Black clambered through the portrait hole, Anna among them. James and Remus took advantage of this distraction to slip into the common room unnoticed and disappear up to their dorm. Sirius, not realising his friends weren't following him, stormed over to the only free table left, which was unfortunately the one Anna and Crystal were currently working at. Glaring at them darkly he threw himself into a chair and pulled out a piece of parchment, stabbing moodily at it with a quill while muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like 'we wouldn't loose so many points if Evans didn't bloody keep taking them off us'. Glancing worriedly at Crystal Anna silently side out of her seat and went over to Lily, who was sat in a comfy chair with a pained expression on her face and rubbing her temples.

"What did he do this time?" Anna sighed, slowly sitting down next to her friend and sinking into the cushions.

"Hexing some poor third year. I don't even know what the kid did, probably looked at him in the wrong way or something knowing Black." She groaned. "He was in a foul mood."

Anna frowned, feeling a pang of guilt. This had been her fault. "Ah, that was probably partly my fault. I sort of tripped him up in the middle of the corridor."

Lily glared at her fiercely.

"He split my bag first!" She protested, holding her hands up in mock surrender.

Lily gave her another of her infamous looks, one that sent Anna jumping from the seat in a dash back towards the table and the safety of her homework to avoid a severe ticking off. When she landed back in her seat Crystal looked up, sending her a sideways smirk that she chose to ignore, burning her eyes into her parchment.

Last lesson of the day was Transfiguration which meant two things: one, Crystal and Anna had to talk to Samara for George- neither of them wanted tow of their closest friends to fall out so early on in the year- and two, they both had to be on their guard because James, Sirius and Peter were all in that class too. Almost as soon as the class had assembled in her room Professor McGonagall started her customary speech on how this was their seventh year and the exams they would the sitting, their NEWTs, were the most important exams they would ever take and would be a huge deciding factor in their futures. Already having heard it twice that day Anna groaned and slammed her head against the desk.

"They're not pushing us hard or anything." She grimaced, running a hand through her messy brown hair.

"McGonagall is right Anna." Samara snapped from her seat beside Anna, clearly still wound up over what happened at dinner. "NEWTs can be the deciding factor in what profession you can go into in later life. It would do you good to do more studying this year, and to not get involved in stupid feuds with Sirius Black."

Anna snorted and nearly started to protest but Samara fixed her with what was a very McGonagall-like glare and Anna immediately shut her mouth and turned her eyes back to the front where Professor McGonagall was waving her wand at the blackboard.

"I thought we would start with something simple, to get you back into the habit of Transfiguring objects. Do not think this means you can mess about in my lesson." She snapped. "And do not leave under the false impression that you will have any more transfigurations lessons this year that are this simple. Right, now that's clear, today we will be turning birds into dinner plates. I think it is safe to assume you all remember how to do that…" she surveyed the class "well go on, what are you all waiting for?"

There was a sudden rush of noise and the class set about their project.

"Have you forgiven George yet?" Anna asked warily eyeing Samara's wand and getting ready to dodge a hex at a moments notice.

Samara just raised one finely arched eyebrow and turned her back on her friend, focusing on the crow sat in front of her. Anna sighed in relief, realising this run in with Sirius had already put her far too much on edge and made her expect the worst of people. i'I must be getting more unhinged than I though'/i She chuckled to herself. Samara muttered a few words under her breath and tapped the bird a few times with her wand; it almost immediately turned into a rather ornate dinner plate.

"Samara…"

"She took it too far."

"But that's just what George does. She thinks the line is further forward than it is." Anna said, sounding for all the world as if she were reciting something she'd said a hundred times.

"I know she takes things too far. She ualways/u takes things too far." Samara groaned. "But it gets to me. You know I don't like people prying into things like that. I want my privacy to be respected, not made into some long running joke."

A small frown graced Anna's face as she realised they had all taken part in a little teasing of Samara over her crush on Severus, just they same way they did with Lily and her denial over her love of James, or Crystal and whoever her latest beau was. None of them had known she took it so seriously.

"If it bothers you have you told her about it?" She asked.

"I… I couldn't do that!"

"Why not?"

"She should know." Samara sighed, turning the dinner plate back into a crow. "She should be able to tell how upset I get."

Anna sighed heavily, about to reply when she looked up to see Professor McGonagall glaring at her. Smiling sheepishly at the stern teacher she turned to the crow and tapped it neatly with her wand while murmuring the required incantation. With a disgruntled look the crow turned back into a dinner plate, although this time it was very plain looking and still had the black colouring of the crow's feathers. With an irritated snort Anna tapped it with her wand again, muttering a quick colour-change charm so that the black plate turned shiny gold.

"In case you haven't noticed George is about as observant as Sirius Black. You need to tell her these things." She reasoned, not looking at her friend. "And to be fair Samara, you have to admit you're about as easy to read as an Ancient Runes textbook."

Samara's regal-looking nose flared. "You wouldn't understand, it's not like you try hard to notice."

"Well forgive me. I mean it's not like it's the first day of term and I already have two of my friends falling out and somehow got myself involved in some sort of hex war in one of the most arrogant troublemakers in the school that we're both too proud or too stupid to call off. Oh and it's not like we have important exams coming up at the end of this year that we're already being pressured about." She paused for a moment, eyeing her friend with a mix of anger and scepticism. "Nope, nothing this year that would mean I haven't got the time to evaluate every little thing everyone does just to see how their feeling. How very stupid of me."

Samara's chocolate brown eyes darkened, but whatever she was about to say was cut off by a ruckus at the back of the classroom. Several people had stopped what they were doing and were looking around to see where the commotion was coming from. It didn't take long to spot the cause, James and Sirius were having a transfiguration competition at the back of the classroom. They were pointing their wands at what Anna guessed used to be their crow and taking turns at transforming it, each time turning it into something bigger and better. First it was a plate, then an ornate hand mirror, then a golden cage. With every transformation the chubby blonde boy that was Peter Pettigrew squeaked happily and applauded. With a look of inherent disgust Samara turned back to her own work, muttering angrily under her breath about how ridiculous they were and the effect this could have on her education. Anna rolled her eyes, a small smile playing about her lips, as distracting and childish as the boys little competition was even Samara would have had to admit they were doing some pretty impressive pieces of transfiguration. Apparently Professor McGonagall thought so too because there was the hint of a smile on her stern features as she told them off and she neglected to deduct any house points, not something that usually escaped her notice.

"Potter, Black, stop that right now. And Pettigrew please control your excitement." She snapped. "As for the rest of you get back to your transfiguration, unless you want extra homework tonight!"

Thankful for the small reprieve Anna turned back to her friend.

"So?" She asked.

Any anger Samara had previously felt towards her friend had been transferred onto the Marauders, her favourite people to hate and after cursing them under her breath for a while she was greatly mollified.

"So what?" She smiled, flicking her wand at the poor crow who was looking greatly disgruntled by now at being changed into a plate so many times.

"So are you going to forgive our dearest George?"

Samara pretended to think for a moment, but her eyes had lit up and she smiled broadly.

"Of course, it's a stupid thing to fall out over. And anyway, being mad at her might distract me from my studies."

Anna started laughing, not stopping until McGonagall appeared behind her and coughed loudly, something which nearly sent her flying from her seat in shock. When her breathing and heart rate had finally returned to normal she turned to the professor, her face flushed.

"Sorry professor." She muttered.

McGonagall's nostrils flared and she tutted. "I wasn't aware my lesson was so amusing." She sniffed, brushing past them.

Anna looked guilty. "Oops."

Samara just chuckled and pointed her wand at George's crow, which was stubbornly refusing to turn into anything for her. Seconds later it was a gorgeous gold dinner plate, far more ornate than the one Samara had produced earlier. Startled George looked around to see how this miracle had occurred, a broad smile spreading over her face when she spotted Samara waving at her.

"Consider it a token of friendship." She called.

If George had smiled any wider her face would have ripped open.

At the end of the day the girls found themselves sat in front of the fire in the common room while the sound of games of wizard's chess and exploding snap filled the air around them. George started thoughtfully into the flames, their orange light making the freckles on her nose glow.

"It's been an eventful first day hasn't it?" She said softly.

Crystal gave an exaggerated hah.

"Not half! If the rest of the year is going to be like this I think I'm going to have to quit and book myself in St Mungo's now."

"Why?" Anna asked, absentmindedly making a small coal dance about in the fire with her wand.

"Oh do be serious Anna; we've already started a war..."

"It's not a war!" She cut in.

"It's a war." A voice insisted from behind them.

"Go away Black, I've had enough of you for one day." Anna growled, not taking her eyes away from the dancing coal.

"I just didn't want you getting the wrong idea." He growled. "You've started something you're not going to be able to finish…"

"Some days I wonder why you weren't sorted into Slytherin with the rest of your family." George muttered to herself, just quiet enough so that he wouldn't hear.

Lily shot her a warning glance- if Sirius caught wind of that George might find herself in the hospital wing. He wasn't someone best known for his gentle temper and if anything was going to spark him into a rage it was comparing him to his family, people of whom he had an intense and well-vocalised dislike.

"Don't be so bigheaded." Crystal said calmly, her eyes drifting over Sirius and James who stood slightly behind him. "Do you not have some desperate girls you can go and bother?"

"I can't help being so well-liked." He smirked, but he didn't push the matter any further as both he and James turned and went back to their friends.

"That was… different." Anna chuckled.

"George! You should know better than to start saying stuff like that, you could have gotten yourself into some serious trouble." Lily snapped. "I know you have a big mouth, but you should really think about what comes out of it sometimes."

"She's right you know. If you get into a fight because you've said something like that I can't guarantee we'll stand up for you." Samara muttered.

George frowned but nodded. "I know, I know. I should think more, speak less. But I have a point."

"I'm not saying a word." Anna smirked, holding her hands up.

"I'm going to not say a word all the way up to bed, I'm shattered." Crystal yawned, turning and heading for the stairs. "See you girls in the morning."

"I think I'll turn in too." Lily agreed, following Crystal up the stairs.

The rest of the girls stayed behind, talking around the fire for a while, but one by one they too departed until only George was left staring into the flames. She stayed there for a long time, frozen still and deep in thought, but finally fatigue claimed her too and she retreated up to the girls dorms.


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors Note: **This is the last chapter I have written. Maybe one day I'll come back to this story, but I doubt it. I lost interest and I haven't the time.  
My apologies...

* * *

The group found themselves once again in potions listening to Professor Slughorn drone on about love potions. Not exactly, Anna decided, what she wanted to have to sit through after a day spent dodging hexes in the corridors. Apparently Sirius's pride had been hurt to a greater extent that she realised when she tripped him in the corridor and he wasn't about to let this little feud drop. Much to her amusement Anna had found that despite being one of the most intelligent troublemakers in the school Sirius wasn't one of the sneakiest, and he had been caught doing magic in the corridors three times that day already, while she hadn't been caught at all. She was also secretly pleased because this meant that Lily, once she found out about it, would be giving Sirius an earful on loosing house points and Lily was one of the few people who Sirius ever listened to.

She was startled out of her thoughts when Crystal elbowed her in the side.

"What?" She hissed.

Crystal just tipped her head to the front of the classroom. Anna glanced up to see that Professor Slughorn was staring at her, an irritated expression on his face.

"Ah, now that you deem fit to join us in the world of the alert Miss Spencer do you think it possible you could answer my question?"

Anna winced at his tone of voice, her eyes drifting down to her desk.

"What was the question sir?"

"What is the main ingredient in a Love Potion? Miss Spencer, this is my third time of asking." He grumped.

"Ashwinder eggs sir." She replied, her voice quieter than she liked hearing it.

"Good good." The professor nodded, apparently satisfied now that she had answered his question and got it right. "Well at least you'll be able to get one ingredient correct."

Anna's temper flared but she bit her tongue and nodded, fixing her eyes on the empty cauldron sat in front of her. Several students tittered with laughter and she was able to pick out the familiar bark of Sirius. The boy was more dog than human sometimes, though that's what you get when you name your kid after the Dog Star. Slughorn waved a hand and the class fell to quiet muttering again.

"Today we will be attempting to brew Amortentia. Now I want you to all be very careful when brewing this potion as it is highly potent..." as he talked George started making 'yak yak' motions with her hand, "…it is a dangerous substance in the wrong hands and if I find that any of you have attempted to remove some of your potion from this classroom to use for your own means…"

The professor trailed off, looking quite dangerous. The class was stunned into silence and even George dropped her hand, the smile falling from her face.

"Well if that happens I can safely say you'll be out of this school faster than you can say expelliarmus."

"He's actually serious." George whispered, staring at the professor in disbelief.

"Of course he is." Lily hissed back irritably. "Amortentia is a very powerful substance. It's dangerous in the wrong hands."

"How is a love potion dangerous?" Anna whispered from the bench next to them.

"People do stupid things when they're in love." George muttered darkly.

Lily nodded approvingly. "She's right. People under the influence of Amortentia have done some terrible things. It's more an obsession than real love, but people forget to eat; they'll do anything for the person who has them under the potion's influence, even die."

"Maybe we should use it on Black." Anna laughed.

"This is no laughing matter Annabelle!" Lily hissed with such ferocity that several people turned to stare.

Biting her lip nervously Anna nodded and turned to stare at her own cauldron, not willing to risk a fight with the fiery red-head. It would almost certainly become a yelling match she had no chance of winning. Lily gave a sharp nod of her head and looked up to the board, where the ingredients and method had appeared from a tap of Slughorn's wand.

"Oh this is ridiculous." Anna grumbled, staring into her cauldron.

What was by now supposed to be a rose coloured bubbling potion according to the instructions on the board was mauve and bubbled sluggishly, as if it was thick like honey. She stole and glance into Crystal's cauldron to see, much to her disgust, that her friend's work was going perfectly. George was looking frustrated as well, but even her potion was only a few shades darker than it was supposed to be. Anna glanced forlornly back at her own cauldron, only to find the mauve honey had turned into a thick orange paste.

"Crystal, what the hell is happening to my potion?"

The blonde looked up and frowned.

"That looks like burn healing paste to me." She commented. "Are you sure you're following the same instructions as the rest of us?"

Anna's nostrils flared and she huffed. "Of course I am! I'm not stupid Crys. Look at my workbench, those are the same ingredients as you've been using, and I've followed the instructions perfectly. I'm not that bad at potions, that should at least look something like it's supposed to."

Crystal nodded thoughtfully, dropping some crushed Ashwinder eggs into the mixture and stirring three times counter clockwise. She left the potion to simmer and walked over to look into Annabelle's cauldron, only to find the orange burn healing paste gone and a spitting moss green concoction in its place.

"Merlin Anna." She muttered staring at the mess in her cauldron then across at the ingredients on the bench, nothing was there that shouldn't be. "Even if you completely ballsed up the ingredients and didn't follow the directions your potion wouldn't do that. Someone is messing with you. Or rather, messing with your potion so they can mess with you."

"I'll give you three guesses who." Anna growled, flicking her gaze back to Sirius and James.

Crystal smiled, her eyes getting that familiar wicked gleam to them. She turned to look across the classroom, noticing for the first time that the supply cupboard was sat only a few feet away from their desk. Her eyes panned down and she caught sight of a piece of parchment sticking out of Sirius's bag, from here she could just see the title 'Potions To Confuse', her eyes lit up and she turned back to Anna.

"I've just had a frankly brilliant idea."

Anna pushed some hair behind her ear and glanced up at her friend, waiting patiently for the inevitable explanation of this brilliant idea.

"How good are you with vanishing spells?"

"Fairly good. I have evanesco down pretty well." She shrugged. "Why, what are you planning? I can't just make Sirius completely vanish in the middle of a classroom!"

Crystal shook her head. "No, but you can make all the words vanish from his homework."

"And how, pray tell, am I going to manage that? As much as I know Sirius adores me, he might, just maybe, suspect I was up to something if I walked over to him, asked for his homework then pointed my wand at it and started muttering spells."

"You're just not sneaky are you?" Crystal sighed.

"Sorry, it wasn't down on the requirements list for Gryffindor house."

"Your powers of sarcasm amaze me sometimes. What you can do it walk over there to get something from the supply cupboard and point your wand very sneakily at the parchment sticking out of Sirius's bag and make the words on it vanish. I need some willow bark anyway, so you'll be doing both of us a favour."

Huffing irritably Anna turned on her heel and marched off down the classroom, her hair bouncing behind her. As she passed Sirius and James's desk she flicked her wand out of her robe pocket and pointed it at the parchment muttering a few words under her breath before striding away and hoping to Merlin she had hit the right thing.

"Right am I correct in assuming I won't see you until Monday?" Slughorn asked at the end of the lesson.

Annabelle had just managed to salvage her potion. After making the mess that was her first attempt disappear and putting up a shield spell around her cauldron (much to the disappointment of James and Sirius) she had worked like a woman possessed to mix up a new batch of Amortentia. Of course it was nowhere near as good as it should have been, the mother of pearl sheen wasn't very good and the smoke didn't rise in the characteristic spirals the board had described, but if she was lucky she would just manage an A with it, which was better than she had been expecting before. Both Crystal and George had been very impressed with her efforts, not expecting her to be able to mix something up that quickly, and although Lily's only comment had been that she wouldn't have had to rush had she not gotten herself involved in some stupid feud with Sirius in the first place they all secretly thought she was quite impressed too.

"I know I gave you homework last lesson, which I shall be collecting in a moment, but you must remember that this is NEWT year and you should be expecting homework every lesson. Even from me. As you have four days in which to do it I am expecting at least twelve inches of parchment on everything you know about love potions. By everything I mean everything." There was a resounding groan from the class. "And this includes why they are dangerous."

Anna grumbled under her breath and scribbled this down in a small notebook she always carried with her, noting as she did so that many other students were doing the same. Apparently after all the havoc of trying to remember homework last year they had all followed Samara's shining example and bought books in which to note their homework down. Something her friend had been doing since first year.

"Right, well, I'll just collect in yesterday's homework and then you can all be dismissed. bAccio homework./b"

Several rolls of parchment flew towards the professor and he caught them all with his wand before setting them down on his desk. As it had flown past them Crystal and Anna had both noted with great amusement that Sirius's parchment had been completely blank. Something which earned Anna a silent low-five under the desk.

"Fine, now that's been done you are all dismissed." Slughorn muttered absentmindedly, waving his hand at them.

The class rushed out of the classroom, many heading straight for the common rooms to relax, it was after all the end of the day. A couple of the more studious kids headed towards the library, Samara among them.

"Where's she off to?" George snorted. "I'd have at least thought she'd come back to the common room with us. She hasn't talked to any of us all lesson."

"Well she was with Severus…" Crystal grinned.

"All the same, I would have thought she'd come back with us." George shrugged. "Maybe he used some of that Amortentia on her. His looked pretty good."

"She wouldn't need to." Anna grinned, neatly sidestepping a hex. "Come on; let's get back to the common room before he actually hits me."

They didn't see Samara in the common room at all that night, and she had blanked them in the morning when she woke up. Rushing through breakfast she left early, heading in the direction of the library and leaving her friends all stunned. They didn't get a chance to talk to her in Herbology either, she was too busy with Severus, and the group couldn't help but feel confused and shunted by her strange behaviour.

"Lily, what's up with Samara?" Crystal asked as they sat around a table in the common room during their free period.

"Is it something I've done? It's usually something I've done."

"But you haven't done anything George." Anna sighed, pushing her homework away from her.

"I have as much idea as the rest of you." Lily sighed. "I asked, but she won't tell me what she's doing either."

"Bugger." George grumbled. "Maybe I should apologise just in case?"

"But you haven't idone/i anything!" Anna replied exasperated.

"This is ridiculous." Crystal threw down her quill, splattering ink all over the table. "I can't concentrate while I'm worrying about Samara."

"I know, but if we don't get this transfiguration homework done McGonagall will turn us into toads and have us used in the next charms lesson."

"I don't think McGonagall is that bad Anna." Lily grinned.

"You never know. She's pretty terrifying when she finds out you haven't done your homework."

"You can say that again, I think I saw a first year crying once because they forgot to do their transfiguration homework." Crystal chuckled. "But what are we going to do about Samara?"

"Tie her down and pour veritaserum down her throat?"

"George that's not even funny!" Lily scolded. "The use of veritaserum is closely watched over by the Ministry."

"Who said I was joking?" George grumbled.

"Well I'd rather she just told us." Anna reasoned. "I have enough to worry about with James and Sirius on my case; I don't want Samara trying to hex me as well because we used a truth serum on her."

"Speaking of which, have they got any worse?"

Anna shook her head. "No, although I nearly broke my nose when Sirius tripped me up before."

"Well look on the bright side." Crystal grinned, slapping her hard on the back. "At least he isn't magically breaking your nose."

"Yeah, and with friends like you trying to break my back who needs enemies?" She groaned.

"You wound me Anna, you really do." Crystal gasped, clasping a hand over her heart.

"Yeah, yeah. Right miss perfect, what are the wand movements required to turn a rat into a hand mirror?"

"Counter-clockwise figure of eight followed by two lingering taps." Crystal muttered.

George and Anna glanced at each other and grinned broadly, scribbling down Crystal's answer on their pieces of parchment. Crystal's ice-blue eyes stared back at them from behind her hair and she frowned.

"Do your own homework."

The rest of the week passed quickly and the girls found themselves spending a free Saturday sat outside by the lake enjoying the warm weather. Well, free apart from the small mountain of Defence Against The Dark Arts and Charms homework they all had, which in true seventh year style they were all putting off until Sunday. Lily had protested for a good half hour when Anna had broken the news to her, but after they dragged her outside (with clever use of the silencio and body bind charms) she gave in and accepted that she would just have to enjoy herself. They had also managed to persuade Samara to spend her Saturday with them instead of doing whatever else it had been she was doing.

"'Ello girls. What 're you doin' out 'ere t'day then?"

The five of them peered up into the warm and friendly face of Rubeus Hagrid the half-giant gamekeeper of Hogwarts.

"We're enjoying the sun Hagrid." Crystal smiled. "Its lovely weather isn't it?"

"D'you not 'ave a load of homework? Seventh years 're usually complainin' 'bout all the homework they get." He chuckled.

"Oh, we were." George grumbled, lying back with her hands behind her head.

"We took the day off; we have tomorrow to do all our homework in." Anna explained, smiling sweetly.

Hagrid nodded. "Well don't be getting behind, any of yer. And I don' want to be seein' you in the forest Anna. Wouldn't do you any good to get killed in yer seventh year."

"I doubt it would do me much good to get killed at any time really." She grinned. "But don't worry; you won't be seeing me in the forest."

"Good. Well I better be off, the cabbages need tending."

They all sat and watched as Hagrid walked away, his figure blotting out the sun for a while as he passed. Anna was grinning broadly and George winked at her.

"So you won't be going into the forest this year?" Lily asked, sounding relieved. "You've finally seen sense! After all these years."

"Nope, I just won't let Hagrid see me in the forest." She smiled back. "I don't see why we're not allowed in there in the first place."

"Because it's dangerous!" Lily snapped. "You heard Hagrid, you could be killed!"

"I haven't run into anything dangerous yet. Actually, I think the most dangerous thing I've ever encountered at this school is Sirius Black on a bad hair day." She shrugged Lily off breezily.

George burst out laughing, clutching her hands over her stomach and startling a group of first years who were walking past. Anna flicked her head back and started laughing at her friend.

"She has a point." Crystal mused. "And she is the one who ticked him off."

"Go away." Anna grumbled, back on the grass and shielding her eyes with her arm. "Can we just relax now?"

There were several giggles from the group around her, but there was unanimous agreement and the girls lay back to sunbathe and relax in the summer sunshine.

Somehow they all drifted off to sleep and when they woke up the sun was starting to go down, cooling the summer air. Groaning Anna sat up and rubbed a hand through her hair. Slowly she opened her eyes and saw the back of Crystal's head.

"How long was I out?" She groaned, except it came out more like "'Ow lung wuth I out?"

Crystal turned and gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming. Anna's face was horribly deformed; her teeth stuck out like a rabbits, her lips were three times too big and her eyes shrunken into her face. There was a loud groan and George sat up as well, turning to see what was up. Her reaction to Anna's new appearance was a lot less subtle.

"Holy hell! What happened to your face?"

Anna's eyes went wide and she nervously brought her fingers up to her face.

"Uh my gud!"

Tears started to roll down her cheeks as she felt the oversized lips and teeth. The commotion had roused Lily and Samara, who were both looking shocked and frightened.

"Mirrur. Nuw."

Samara shook her head. "No way Anna. You do not want to see that." She fumbled in the robes, finally drawing out her wand. "Just give me a minute and I'll see if I can't fix it for you."

Anna nodded frantically, closing her eyes and praying for Samara's amazing magical ability to come through for her. She heard her friend muttering a few words and felt a blast of cold against her face. When she lifted her hand to feel her lips again they were back to normal. Her front teeth were a little longer than they used to be, but it would be barely noticeable. She held out her hand and felt a small compact mirror placed into it. She flipped it open and studied her reflection carefully, wiping a few tears from her cheeks as she did so. Satisfied she snapped the mirror shut, handing it back to Crystal.

"Thank Merlin you're such an amazing witch Samara." She grinned, throwing her arms around her friend's neck.

Samara patted her back nervously. "Yeah, no problem Anna. I'm not really that good."

"Come on; let's get inside before Anna becomes victim to any more unfortunate hexes." Crystal sighed, getting to her feet.

"Yeah, now you get to plan your revenge." George grinned, jumping to her feet and pulling Anna up with her.

Anna's lips contorted into a twisted grin and her eyes flashed dangerously. In all her panic she had momentarily forgotten that someone must have done that to her, and she knew just the person that would. Her little feud with Sirius had just stepped up a notch and she knew exactly how to get him back for that little piece of magic. Unconsciously she slipped a hand into her robes and closed her fingers around her wand.

Her chance for revenge came quicker than she thought it would. They passed Sirius and James laughing about their little prank in the corridors while Remus was, for once, reprimanding them.

"Oh come on Moony, that was a fantastic little bit of magic." Sirius protested.

"She was asleep Sirius, she couldn't even defend herself!" Remus snapped, sounding like he had reached the end of his (very long) tether. "That was underhanded even for you."

"Oh leave it Remus; her little friends could fix her up if they wanted to. At least one of them is clever enough to manage it." Sirius growled back.

Anna's face set into a frown, her eyebrows knitting together. Crystal tugged on her arm as they neared the stretch of corridor the boys were stood in and Anna rolled her eyes at her, flexing her fingers around her wand. George's eyes slid down to her friend's pocket and she chuckled, nodding her head.

"Just let her do it Birdie, I know you get as much of a kick out of this as I do." She grinned.

Crystal sighed and nodded, letting go of Anna's sleeve. She too scowled at the boys as they passed; only Remus escaped her damning glare. Sirius was barking with laughter, screwing up his eyes and sticking his lips and teeth out as a poor imitation of the state of Anna's face earlier. Anna said nothing as she passed them, but once Sirius had his back to her she whipped out her wand a muttered a few words. A stream of pink and green sparks issued from the very tip of her wand.

"That'll teach him to cast spells on people when they're asleep." She grinned.

Crystal and George stopped dead and turned around, barely stifling their peals of laughter. James and Remus were in the same position, except only Remus was trying to disguise his laughter; James was all but rolling around on the floor in hysterics. Even the portrait of the Edwardian witch behind him was chuckling.

"What the hell is going on?" Sirius roared.

Anna stopped for a moment, freezing the scene in her memory forever. Oh how she wished she had a camera on her, or a hidden camera to capture Sirius's expression when he realised the raven locks he treasured so much were now a rather unpleasant shade of slime green. Seeing him start to turn she darted around the corner, almost sprinting up to the common room with her friends.

"Y'know, slime green isn't your colour mate." James laughed.

"I'd be careful if I were you Padfoot, the Slytherins might think you're mocking them."

Sirius turned and caught a glance of his reflection in the window, complete with new slime green hair.

"ANNABELLE SPENCER!" He roared. "I'm going to kill her with my bare hands." He rounded on the portrait behind him. "You. You get that news to her, then no one can say I didn't give her fair warning."

The portrait nodded, looking a little offended and disappeared.

"Calm down, it's not like you can't easily reverse that." Remus smiled. "Don't go taking this too far."

"Yeah, I don't want to have to be visiting you in Azkaban because you killed some girl over your hair." James added, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, his smile faltering slightly. "Just let us fix your hair and we'll get her back with a fantastic Marauder prank."

Sirius gave a slow nod, slightly mollified.

Up in the Gryffindor tower the girls had taken refuge in their dorm room, knowing that Sirius couldn't get up here to murder Anna. They had heard him yelling as they were running.

"Was it worth it?" Crystal panted. "Was making me run all the way up to the Gryffindor tower and getting a death sentence put over your head really worth the payback?"

"Definitley." Anna smirked, although her voice cracked a little.

"I can't believe you would be so stupid." Lily snapped, she had already been in the common room when the rest of the girl had come thundering up and so had escaped being involved in this little prank.

Anna opened her mouth for some smart reply but she was cut off by a cough from above their heads. Turning and looking up she spotted the young woman in the portrait on the wall beside her bed waving at her urgently.

"Yeah?" She asked slowly.

"Sorry to interrupt you miss, but Lady Amina Hamilton sent word from her portrait on the third floor corridor that Sirius Black claims he is going to kill you with his bare hands miss. I don't know what you did to him miss, but most of the Black's are not a nice lot and I would warn you to be careful." The portrait paused as if thinking hard for a moment. "Lady Hamilton said not to worry though miss, she thinks he was just exaggerating. She says the portrait of Sir Inan informed her than he is only planning to prank you."

Anna nodded. "Thank you Miss…? Sorry I don't know your name."

"Page miss, Delilah Page."

"Well thank you for the warning Miss Page. If possible can you get word to Mr Black that the charm I performed is easily reversed and he should calm down?" Anna smiled, ignoring the warning looks from Lily.

"Of course miss." The portrait bowed and disappeared from her frame.

"Anna, you're going to get yourself seriously hurt if you keep up with this nonsense!" Lily snapped. "Can you not just let it lie?"

"But its fun and you know he's getting what's coming to him!" George put in.

"Will you stop encouraging her! You aren't the one getting hexed at every turn. Merlin knows the havoc this is going to play with your studies."

"Calm down Lily. I can handle it. I think."


End file.
